Senior Social Worker

We are currently recruiting for a new Social Worker or Senior Social Worker (non-case holding role) for our Community Social Work Team based in Stroud.

This role is 37 hours per week.

About Us

For all your hard work. You will receive the following:

- £34,834 - £44,428 per annum
- flexible and agile working opportunities
- 24.5 days annual leave rising to 29.5 days after 5 years continuous service
- an option to purchase up to 10 days of additional leave per year
- family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
- supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
- Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
- access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone.
- an in-house Occupational Health service
- employee discount scheme
- cycle to Work scheme
- links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
- career development and qualification opportunities
- access to our Social Work Academy

Right child, right support, right time, every time

We are working together to support families and communities to give every child the best chance of a happy and rewarding life, especially those who need more help.

Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.

Gloucestershire Children’s Services are improving. Our latest Ofsted inspection (February 2022) identified that:

‘Significant progress has been made in many areas of Gloucestershire’s children’s services… significant financial investment and the backing of political leaders, has led to improved services that are now more effective in meeting the needs of children and families’.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to be part of an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

The Community Social Work (CSW) Team are qualified social workers whose role is to support practitioners in the community who work directly with children and families. It is a county-wide team comprising 8 social workers, two deputy managers, and a team manager. Social Workers within the team are non-case holding and support community practitioners to reflect on worries for children and their families, identify next steps and follow-up to ensure practitioners are confident in completing agreed actions, providing or signposting to support required.

Community Social Workers also work alongside community practitioners who are part of a Team Around the Family where there are concerns that the risk is increasing, where there are multiple needs which are not being met or there is a particularly complex situation to address. In summary, the primary purpose of the Community Social Worker is to respond to emerging risk and manage de-escalating risk held in the Community.

The Community Social Work Team develop and deliver practitioner training in partnership with the Gloucestershire Children’s Safeguarding Partnership and Health professionals and upskill practitioners utilising a ‘project approach’, identifying and disseminating best practice which demonstrates impact, resulting in sustained improvements for children and families.

The Team is part of Gloucestershire County Council’s Early Help and Targeted Support service and is integral to the Early Help Advice, Guidance and Support provided to community practitioners and partners to ensure practitioners are confident in implementing an Early Help approach to respond to emerging and escalating need. The Team is viewed positively and highly valued by community practitioners in Gloucestershire.

About You

You will provide the vital link between our social care teams and the Early Help Partnership. You will support practitioners who are working with vulnerable children, young people, and their families to understand risk and harm and promote clarity where the level of risk is unclear. Part of the role will also include involvement with Early Help to improve outcomes for children and young people not currently open to Children’s Social Care and prevent their needs from escalating unnecessarily.

You will also be well supported within our experienced team to deliver training on different aspects of safeguarding and so much more! Please see Glos Families Directory for more information about the things that we do.

This role could be the perfect next step in your career, offering opportunities to undertake CPD to progress to GCC Endorsed Senior Social Worker, complete Train the Trainer to enable you to develop and deliver training and where available, complete the PEPs training to become a qualified practice supervisor / educator. For the right candidate, this is a real development opportunity within a supportive team.

As well as your experience gained over at least 3 years as a frontline Social Worker, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

- Social Work England registration
- a recognised qualification in Social Work
- to have passed your Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE)
- a full driving licence and willingness to drive
- DBS clearance

How to apply

If you would like further details or information on the role please email: Mandy.Hollands@gloucestershire.gov.uk

If you would like to find out more about our Children's Service please take a look here: Children's Social Care Careers | Gloucestershire County Council

*Please note, all our welcome payments and retention payments are non-contractual, pro-rata for part time staff and subject to National Insurance and tax deductions.

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Community Social Worker Job Profile

This position is subject to a DBS check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.